Prose in a Page – Writes of Passage

Que pensez-vous?

I hate going out in public with dad.

To give birth in Italian is ‘dare alla luce’, or to give to the light.

“Wait, what are you?”

“A human.”

My peers shame me, they lose respect for me. I spend the rest of my school lunches alone. But no one touches me again.

But my steps sped up and betrayed me; my calm gave way to a visceral terror that could only invite his lust further.

You may look different.

The fog did not frighten nor did the storm sweep all away. Almost not all.

Three minutes before this moment, I was strong. Now I was reduced to a shrunken mass of nerves.

The enormity of her circumstance settled around me as if her choice had been my own.